July 29, 2005
From Flash to Flex
Mark your calendars for August 26th. I'll be giving a presentation in Philadelphia from 7:30-9:30 about making the transition from Flash to Flex. If you're a Flash developer curious about Flex this is for you. Also, if you're new to Flex and want to find out a little bit more, you're welcome to attend as well.
August 26, 2005 - From Flash to Flex
The road to Flex is easier than you might think, especially if you come from a Flash background. In this presentation, Darron will be explaining how he made the shift from Flash to Flex for development and the processes and techniques that he has taken to get there. You'll learn how to use Flex as a client side compiler, how to switch from the Stage to MXML, how Flex simplifies the development model, how to leverage your existing Flash and ActionScript skills, the "quickest" way to port an application from Flash to Flex, and general tips and tricks from his experience along the way. Darron will go all the way from downloading the Flex trial and the open source Eclipse IDE, to getting it installed and compiling your first .mxml file to a .swf. Flex isn't scary, and we invite you to come see how it can positively affect your own development skills and projects.
As always, I'll post the slides and examples for download here once the presentation is over. I'm not sure if it will be recorded, but if it is I'll link to that as well.
The venue is yet to be determined, but given a choice of going out on a Friday night or geeking out with me... well, I hope to see you there!
Big thanks to Rob for setting this up!
Comments
I sure hope you can Breeze this as I'd be very interesting in the preso!
Posted by: Sean Corfield at July 29, 2005 06:38 PM
Hi,
We have a very complex application writen with Flash MX. We have written custom links, linkbars, panes, tab controls by ourselves.
Now we discovered Flex!
I love the way MXML works but I know that 80% of our time is spent in code more than on laying out the UI, and for code we use Eclipse and MTASC (which are both amazing).
I know the future is Flex, but is there a way to convert our FLA's to Flex? We thought of a SWF->SWFMILL->Custom XSLT->MXML translator but our fla's are very complex. Is there anything similiar out there?
Also one of the things that I usually dislike about Flex samples is the use of databinding and code mixed in the declarative language. Does it not get confusing after a while? I guess this could be avoided but I feel that Macromedia is pushing this model. What do you think?
The price for us would not be so much of an issue, but to loose the upgrade time just to have a better layout manager and better components, loosing the in place design functionality, it's a very hard decision.
Thank you very much for you advice.
Tiago
http://tiago.webstartpoint.net/flash/
Posted by: Tiago Simoes at July 31, 2005 04:59 PM
Well, you nailed me pretty well with the entry.. A sham Philadelphia is a 7 hour flight from here or I'd be considering it! Guess it's random-guess learning for me. :)
Good luck with the presentation, though!
Posted by: Jonas Arrow at August 3, 2005 02:23 AM